Columbia: Bogotá Dreams
With Clark University’s help, some of the poorest Colombians are transforming their backyards into fields of possibility
By Jim Keogh
Clark University Magazine
Feb 8, 2024
Excerpt:
The urban farming project in San Cristóbal del Sur earned the attention of leaders of the Bogotá Botanical Garden, who in 2020 approached Javeriana and Dobson about collaborating with them to improve the dismal rate of return on the thousands of citizen farms that the Garden had helped launch throughout the city. At the time, only ?ve families from within the Botanical Garden’s network of 10,000 farms were realizing a minimum livable wage of about $500 a year.
To scale up efforts, Dobson organized a series of workshops where he and colleagues from various universities—including, this past May, School of Management professors Steve Ng and Lawrence Norman (see They mean business, below), as well as experts from his professional network—train about 120 farmers and technical staff from the Botanical Garden over the course of a week. The participants learn the entrepreneurial skills and tools needed to generate a steady income—everything from financial management to marketing strategies to customer relations.
The workshop attendees then return to their city neighborhoods to share best practices with other farmers. The visiting experts also pair up with local faculty and technical staff to “take it to the field” and work with local residents to turn their lessons into tangible benefits.
